The loudest post-debate chatter rolling into this morning centered on whether Mitt Romney had committed a major gaffe in proposing a $10,000 bet to Rick Perry in the middle of Saturday night’s debate.

Critics of Romney’s move saw it as a signature moment that will alienate the multimillionaire businessman from average Americans.

Romney’s bet echoes the words of a Wall Street politician, said Robert Haus, Iowa co-chairman for Perry’s campaign.

“That’s the language of Wall Street and not the language of Main Street, Iowa,” Haus said. “I just think it went right past people.”

A Romney supporter, however, said the bet from someone who’s perceived as a straight-laced candidate was a way to illustrate Romney’s frustration with Perry’s repeated claims about Romney’s health reform history.

“I think he was kind of sick and tired of Rick Perry continually bringing up this mistruth about his book, which has been fact-checked and fact-checked again and again and proven to be wrong,” said Austin Barbour, a national finance chairman for Romney’s campaign.

Romney’s proposition came amid a heated exchange revolving around his implementation of an individual mandate in state health care reforms while the governor of Massachusetts.

The issue involved claims that Romney changed a book he’s written to remove a suggestion that the nation adopt Massachusetts’ health reform program. Barbour said Romney’s wager offer forced Perry, the governor of Texas, to back off the claim. “He didn’t take the bet, did he?” Barbour said, grinning.

“I was kind of confused,” Upmeyer said. “I don’t know anybody that carries that kind of money around with them. When I make a bet with somebody, it’s usually for the $5 I have in my hand, and we lay it down and we bet.”

The exchange began when Perry took issue with Romney’s assertion that he’d repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reforms, which were influenced by the Massachusetts model, if elected president.

“(T)he record is very clear: You and Newt (Gingrich) were for individual mandates, and that is the problem,” Perry said.”

Romney said the plan was his state’s choice: “The people of Massachusetts favor our plan three to one. If they don’t like it, they can get rid of it.”

He then brought up the differences between his plan and Obama’s plan, saying the Massachusetts plan didn’t raise taxes or cut Medicare funds.

Then Perry riled Romney:

“I read your first book, and it said in there that your mandate in Massachusetts … should be the model in the country. And I know it came out of the reprint of the book. But, you know, I’m just saying, you were for individual mandates, my friend.”

Romney disagreed enough to make a wager:

“Rick, I’ll tell you what: 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet?”

That’s a lot of money to play with. ABC News reported afterward that $10,000 is roughly three months of the average American’s income. Another note: Gambling is opposed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to which Romney belongs.

“Church leaders have encouraged church members to join with others in opposing the legalization and government sponsorship of any form of gambling,” the church’s official site reads.

“I’m not in the betting business,” Perry concluded.

ABC News reported in a fact-checking article after the debate that in Romney’s first edition of “No Apology,” a line reads, “We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country,” but the line is not in the later paperback version.

The book was published just before the health care reform bill became law, ABC reported. The Romney campaign says the line was removed because more information on the law was available when the second version came out.